Absurdism in Tom Stoppard`s

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Absurdism in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Dr. Pew Maji
Assistant Professor
University of Dammam,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist existentialist tragic comedy by
Tom Stoppard. The play is acclaimed as a dramatic masterpiece. With the setting in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play expands upon the exploits of the two minor characters
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The play offers only brief appearances of the major characters of
the Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a pair of school mates and childhood friends of
Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Based on the same period of time the two minor characters are
changed into major characters. They are the Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy who finally get a
chance to lead the roles in their life, but it looks similar like that of “Waiting for Godot”. It
presents a mixture of reality and illusion and fate plays its own role of leading these two
characters into death. The play adopted from Shakespeare takes its own form in a manner where
the central characters are thrown in a world where they are unable to comprehend anything. It is
quoted by the NewYork Times as, “This is a most remarkable play. Very funny. Very brilliant.
Very chilling.” In his review for the New York Times, Brantley called the production “brave and
gorgeous”, adding that “I wouldn’t call it (the play) a major work of art. In literary terms I
wouldn’t ever rank it with Mr. Stoppard’s best”.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, childhood friends of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark,
betray him at the behest of King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Denmark. They act as spies;
because of Hamlet’s cleverness and a combination of chance they are doomed to execution
instead of Hamlet. Rosencrantz is a gentleman and childhood friend of Hamlet. Along with his
friend Guildenstern he seeks to uncover the cause of Prince Hamlet’s strange behaviour. They
are worried about the dark behabiour of Hamlet and feel that this is just the result of his personal
crisis. Both the characters struggle and try to understand the world around them. Stoppard very
craftily shows how the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
have similarity only in character. The theme, the language, the theatrical style and even the time
period are entirely different in both the plays. Shakespearean Hamlet was set in the Elizabethan
era when Renaissance was on its rise while Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
is written in the modern era when absurdism, existentialism and experimentation are in question
with no church and monarchy in its dominant form. Written in colloquial language the subject
matter of the play is precisely the relationship between absurdism and humanity.
The very opening scene of Act I present the two characters in a contrasting manner
showing Guildenstern’s large leather bag nearly empty while Rosencrantz’s nearly full. Their
betting on the toss of a coin repeatedly and their oddity of the situation are very much there.
With Guildenstern quoting that there is an art to the building up of suspense and it could be done
by luck alone brings forth the absurdism in the play. These two minor characters of Hamlet are
taken up by Stoppard for his own advantage. They have been presented by him as two halves of
a single character. With identical story line as Hamlet, Stoppard grows out of the frame of
Shakespeare and gives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern more importance. The two characters are
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
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the epitome of idiosyncrasy as they are logically unaware of their destiny. The characters pass
time by playing questions and flipping coins. Comparisons have been drawn to Samuel Beckett’s
“Waiting for Godot where the two characters Vladimir and Estragon are waiting endlessly and in
vain for the arrival of Godot. The situation can be drawn out on the pain of vagrant men of the
two play and their efforts to divert themselves while waiting in a vague pretense. With absurdity
on its high the play well blends with the theme that man is really a puppet controlled and
menaced by invisible outside forces. Drawing upon the model of Vladimir and Estragon, Tom
Stoppard gave full importance to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern shaping their characters. The
appearance of the players also in the play mirrors the appearances of Pozzo and Lucky in
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
Shakespeare’s influence can be directly seen in the title of Stoppard’s title of the play
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. As quoted by Friedrich Durrenmatt in his essay
Problems of the Theatre, “Comedy alone is suitable for us…..But the tragic is still possible even
if pure tragedy is not. We can achieve the tragic out of comedy. We can bring it forth as a
frightening moment, as an abyss that opens suddenly; indeed, many of Shakespeare’s are already
really comedies out of which tragic arises.” With the Theatre of the Absurd commonly
associated with existentialism, Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead focuses
on absurdism as well as existentialism. A fine example of the Theatre of the Absurd Tragic
drama, the play presents the central characters thrown in an absurd manner into a world where
they are unable to comprehend the successive situations taking place. If we go by the real
meaning of the word absurdism it refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek
inherent value and meaning in life and human inability to find any. Absurdism is closely related
to existentialism and nihilism or to say nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism
with the argument that life is without objective meaning, purpose or intrinsic value. With the
belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value or to say it is meaningless or insignificant. Tom
Stoppard used this existential nihilism to profess the absurdism in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead. Tracing out the origins of absurdism in Shakespearean drama it can be mentioned that
it originated under the influence of the Commedia dell’Arte.
Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead has basically no real story line,
instead there is a series of free-floating images in which the audience interpret the
communication and thus making speech more futile. Stoppard’s play metaphorically addresses
the issue of “ending” or “dying” and through such observations one can clearly state that
absurdism has evolved. All the more Absurd drama creates an atmosphere where the people are
alone or are forced to be alone. Especially the clown-like characters of Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern do blunders in their way through out because for them life is meaningless. The two
main characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spend their time reliving their life and trying to
make sense of their existence. Unlike other absurd characters they are more real to us. Tom
Stoppard gave them an identity and that is more realistic.
The confusion of the two characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern creates an
atmosphere of exploitation. The philosophy of existentialism elaborates the uniqueness and
isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human
existence as unexplainable and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the
consequences of one’s facts. Their playing with their coins continuously reveals their personal
crisis as they are unaware of their destiny. While talking meaninglessly for a long time and
tossing the coin for head and tail finally Guildenstern comments, “the scientific approach to the
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
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examination of Phenomenon is a defense against the pure emotion of fear”. He further talks
about supernatural forces and the probability. When Guildenstern says, “Nothing else happened.
Ninety two coins spun consecutively have come down heads ninety-two consecutive
times……and for the last three minutes on the wind of a windless day. I have heard the sound of
drums and flutes.….” To which Rosencrantz adds, “(cutting his fingernails) Another curious
scientific phenomenon is the fact that the fingernails grow after death, as does the beard.”
Guildenstern asks shockingly, “What?” Rosencrantz replies loudly: “Beard!” To this
Guildenstern comments, “But you are not dead.” To which Rosencrantz says irritatingly, “I
didn’t say they started to grow after death!” He further pauses and calmly continues, “The finger
nails also grow before birth, though not the beard.”
The meaningless conversation of the two friends illustrates their meaningless existence and
absurdism. They are perplexed individuals and unable to be independent. They need something
or somebody to guide them in their life. In addition to that they had no memory of past
happenings and their present picture is also vague. In Act III, when Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern discover that Hamlet is no more in the boat, their journey becomes mission-less.
The purpose of their journey is not solved as Hamlet is no longer with them. Then Guildenstern
says, “We’ve travelled too far, and our momentum has taken over; we move idly towards
eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation”. Rosencrantz in reply say, “Be
happy- if you’re not even happy what’s so good about surviving? We’ll be all right. I suppose
we just go on”.
It is the deepest and darkest of existential crisis of their life that they both are drawn towards the
unknown destiny of their life. The realization that life is mechanical increases the despair of
Guildenstern.
Tom Stoppard’s play presents the two minor characters of Hamlet Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern into major characters, while the major characters of Hamlet - the tragedians;
Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the new King of Denmark; Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother and the
Queen of Denmark; Polonius, a member of Danish court and advisor to Claudius; Ophelia, the
daughter of Polonius and Hamlet’s former beloved; Laertes, the son of Polonius and brother of
Ophelia; are changed into minor characters including Hamlet. The characters are unable to
acknowledge that there are certain laws that regulate nature and they are mere puppets played
with the strings controlled by God. The common theological question can be raised that if
mankind was created by God, who or what created God. Stoppard presents absurdism in his own
way with the inevitability of death.
As explained by Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus about absurdism, “The absurd
is born out of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable of the world”. It
is very true for the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as they are born out of this
confrontation. According to Sartre, “Humanity must live in a world that is and will forever be
hostile or indifferent towards them”. The philosophy that encompasses the absurd is called
absurdism. Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a break-through play.
The critics of absurdism focus on two areas of philosophy. As Camus described, the first is the
proposition and that life’s absence of meaning seems to remove any reason of living. Human
quest for purpose is quiet absurd. In this life everything must have a purpose and that itself is an
important reason for existence.
Albert Camus had pointed out that happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same
earth. They are inseparable. In the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” the
protagonists are clueless about their destiny. They are happy as they entertain the readers by
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
ISSN 2278-9529
playing a lengthy tennis game and sometimes tossing the coin to pass the time. It seems they are
not able to comprehend what is going on in the absurd world and by smiling or being comedic
they are trying to hide their innermost feelings or being absurd. The plight of Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern mirrors humanity as a whole. While elaborating on the aim of the Theatre of the
Absurd, scholar and critic Martin Esslin had written, “It is a challenge to accept the human
condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly,
precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately
man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions,
may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why in the last
resort the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation”.
“Life is a gamble, at terrible odds – if it was a bet you wouldn’t take it”.
The player makes this observation in Act III when he informs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that
the Tragedians had to leave Elsinore depicting life’s uncertainty.
The influence of Samuel Beckett can be seen in the absurdism of Stoppard.
Beckett’s innovations, use of silly dialogues are all seen in Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead”. Inspite of all the influences, the play is unique. It is a play of innovative
theme and is universally accepted as well as acknowledged as one of the best play of
Contemporary Theatre. According to Martin Esslin, “The reality of these plays is a psychological
and inner realism; they explore the human sub-conscious in depth rather than trying to describe
the outward appearance of human existence. Nor is it quite correct that these plays, deeply
pessimistic as they are, are nothing but an expression of utter despair. It is true that basically the
Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy. It
aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the
human situation as these writers see it.” The words of the play also ‘often appear’ to have lost
their detonative function, thus creating misunderstanding among the characters which is yet
another characteristic trait of absurdism. Instead the language gains a certain phonetic turn and
thus becomes rhythmical or almost musical. Sometimes for the mere purpose of whiling away
the time of waiting for something that is not to come also makes it truly an absurd drama.
Stoppard has succeeded to present the play in its richest sense.
In Act II, Stoppard kills the character of Polonius because Shakespeare wrote in as such
and Stoppard’s play largely mirrors the plot of Shakespeare’s work. By the end of the Act
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are found to have lost their courses of life. The play ultimately
suggests the role of fate and chance in our life followed by paralyzing confusion. Stoppard
frequently uses this confusion for comic effect. Both the characters in their confusion lose their
way of life and fall into despair. Their passive approach to their life reflects how difficult it is to
make decisions in a world that we find difficult to understand.
There is little emotion in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Both the
characters are unsympathetic and as such they are comic. They are forgetful, their pants fall
down, they forget their names, their identities, and their artificiality is easily visible. At the end
of the play when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die there is no sympathy for them from the
audience. Comedy is interspersed with tragedy leaving the audience in confusion to think what is
real and what is artificial. The two characters are comic clowns after all. In the last Act, in the
scene of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern dying, the scene and background both become symbolic
of death hovering in the atmosphere. As the Sun is going down, or the Earth’s coming up - they
present a fashionable theory in it. When Rosencrantz remarks with a cry, “We’ve nothing wrong!
We didn’t harm anyone. Did we?”
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To this Guildenstern answers, “I can’t remember.”
(Rosencrantz pulls himself together)
Rosencrantz continues, “All right, then. I don’t care. I’ve had enough. To tell you the truth, I’m
relieved.”
As Rosencrantz disappears from view, Guildenstern did not notice. Their death was simply
disappearing.
As James Stobaugh had quoted in World Literature, “The Absurdist abandoned all hope
of finding meaning in life and embraced a sort of nihilism. The Absurdist was convinced that
everything was meaningless and absurd. The subjectivity of a Romantic was appealing to the
Absurdist. However, even that implied that something was transcendent – a desire – and the
Absurdist would have nothing to do with that”.
Works Cited:
1. Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus (Justin O’Brien, Trans.). New York,
Ny:Random House, Inc.1958.
2. Esslin, Martin.The Theatre of the Absurd. The Tulane Drama Review, Vol.4, No.4(May1960),
The MIT Press
< http:// www.jstor.org/stable/1124873>
3. Freeman, John. Holding up the Mirror to Mind’s Nature : Reading
‘Rosencrantz’ ‘Beyond Absurdity’. The Modern Language Review,
Vol,91No.1(Jan.,1996).
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/3733994>
4. Hewitt, Barnard.History of the Theatre from 1800 to the Present. New York,
1970
5. Stobaugh, James P. World Literature. United States of America:Master Books, 2012.
6.
Theatre of the Absurd in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,
123HelpMe.com.13Oct.2013
< http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=162747>.
7. Williams, Raymond. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht.London, Chatto and Windus, 1968.
Reprinted, London, Hogarth Press, 1987.
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